Friday, May 30

Today Katie and I woke up around 10, ate breakfast, showered and got ready, and then went to Terminal O’Higgins to meet up with the rest of the exchange students to go up to Santiago. We met Sally, Nigel, Kristen, Cassidy (who are from Santiago but were visiting in Rancagua), and Louis, and we all made the journey up to Santiago. We got off the bus and took the metro over to Patio Bellavista, where we waited for Aiden and Felix to come join us and then we went over to this place to drink beers and eat giant pizzas.

After everyone else left to say goodbye to Sophie at the airport, Katie, Cassidy, Sally, and I walked across Parque Forestal to this amazing ice cream shop called Emporio de la Rosa. We ate ice cream and talked about how incredible it is that we’ve been in Chile for so long and that at the same time it feels like it’s been 2 weeks and we can’t believe it’s going to be over so fast.

After the ice cream, we parted ways, and Katie and I went back to the micro so Katie could meet up with Madison and I could meet up with Trine and go to Lilly’s house, where we were spending the night. We got to the metro stop a lot faster than they did so instead of leaving the metro to wait for them outside and having to pay the metro fee a second time, we just sat inside the station on the floor listening to music and chatting. Eventually we found Trine and Madison and Trine and I went one way while Madison and Katie went the other. After a long a hectic metro ride, Trine and I arrived at Lilly’s house. We quickly got ready for the Rotary gala tonight (we were supposed to dress semi formally) and Lilly’s parents took us over.

It was at this event center in a big room with tables of snacks on the sides and a DJ and a big open space in the middle. Not everyone was there, but still about 35 or 40 people had shown up, so we spent a long time moving in between groups and talking. It was sort of this scary unspoken thing that this night may be the last time we were all going to see each other. We danced a little bit, but everyone was being pretty lame and just wanted to stand around and talk. Honestly the party wasn’t that fun at all, but it was just nice being with the exchange student family one last time. Lilly, Sam, Vincent, Trine, and I went back to Lilly’s house around 1:30.

Her family set up a bunch of air mattresses in the living room, and we lay down in one line of people to watch a movie. It was Lilly’s last night in Chile (she was leaving for Germany the next day), so we wanted to make it fun for her. We watched the movie, and then lay in the dark talking for a long time. Sam and I explained the education system in the US, and Lilly and Vincent explained the system in Germany. Then, out of the blue, Vincent grabbed a pillow and hit me over the head with it, then bragged for a long time about how he had won the “pillow battle” (I just love Germans so much). We stayed up talking until like 4 in the morning before we finally fell asleep.